Basic vocabulary and organization of ecology. This is for a high school environmental science class. Information is from the book Environmental Science: toward a sustainable future 11th edition.

1. Ecology
Basic Needs of Living things
Organisms and Their Environment

2. Ecology
• The study of the relations ships between
organisms and between organisms and their
environment.

3. What do you mean environment?
The environment is made up of two things
1. Abiotic Factors: Non-living (never was living)
Examples: rocks, water, air, weather, sunlight,
sand, temperature…
2. Biotic Factors: Living ,once living things or
part of a living organism. Examples: Leaves,
trees, poop, whales, flowers, mushrooms.

4. Organism
• Any unicellular or multicellular form exhibiting
all the characteristics of life, an individual
• The lowest level of organization in ecology

5. Species
• All the organisms of a single kind (plant,
animal or microbe).
• Organisms can and do mate and produce
fertile offspring

7. Population
• A group of individuals of
the same species that live
in a given area and
interbreed.
• Example: Wolves of
Yellow Stone Park, The
ants at AISE, Plumeria’s in
Cairo.
• Population vs. Species:
Gray wolves of
Yellowstone park vs. gray
wolves of the world.

8. Biotic Community (Biota)
• All the living
organisms that live in
a particular area
• Includes vegetation to
animals to microscopic
creatures such as
bacteria.
• depend on one another

9. Ecosystems
• An interactive complex
of the communities and
the abiotic environment
affecting them within a
particular area.

10. Ecotones and Biomes
Ecotone: The transition
area between two
ecosystems
Share’s many
characteristics between
both ecosystems
Biome: a large area of
Earth’s surface with the
same climate and similar
vegetation.
Examples: Tropical
rainforest, tundra,
grasslands, deserts